Quote:
Originally posted by Azred:
Just because some stuffy Federal laws don't say "man-man" or "woman-woman" means nothing. I should tell all those couples I know in the Metroplex that they don't have the same rights as Belle and I do--that should come as a shock to them. The only thing they cannot do that we can do is procreate biologically. Thus, homosexual couples have de facto equality and, as Timber suggests, they have legal equality under the 14th Amendment. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]
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The 14th amendment, nor the rest of the Constitution, don't mean squat unless goverment works like the document says it should and people participate in there own governence in order to see to it. Right now there are many anti-gay or limiting marriage laws on the books that can be deemed contrary to the implied legal equality as a right by the 14th amendment. Some can also be deemed a gender bias complaint made under civil rights laws.
One way our government works is by people particpating to change the laws that are deemed contrary to the guidelines of lawmaking into to laws that are compliant to the constitution. It is checks and balances, and people participating in the goverment for progress by the ways it is designed.
You can't just shut-up and pray that government changes the way you hope. Thank God they didn't do that in 1776. It takes time, work, and particpation to change the government. It also takes time for people to change. It is the hard road and sometimes the disappointing road and the road of sacrifice.
Gay Frank and Gay Joe can't file a joint tax return as a married couple, but Straight Jim and Straight Tina can. This is the simplist and extremely common inequality out of the thousand+ that exist.
I cannot spell out any more clearly why I think gay inequality exists. Gay inequality by the law is actual- plain as day, and it is a bona-fide fact and as far as I'm concerned not a side-issue. It is as disparaging and as pertinant as the struggle vs inequality women endured beofe sufferage and that people with colored skin endured before the civil rights era.
I see equality up there with freeedom as key issues whenever governement is involved. More so Equality and Freedom are like absolute ideals that make up key roots of our government.